Hey LED lovers, I thought I should get another diary going for my current grow.... 2x Dutch Passion 'Auto Ultimate' and 1x Dinafem 'Critical Jack'.

I grew Critical Jack 2 grows ago, and me and the Missus loved it..... easy to grow, big yields and a lovely smoke.... a no brainer.Auto Ultimate has great reviews, also a very strong smoke, and a big producer. coming from the excellent Dutch Passion catalogue, and with a name that includes the word 'ultimate', I'm expecting some top shelf bud.

Although I got a decent sized harvest in my last grow (BAM and TD), I made a few mistakes towards the end. Basically I went a bit heavy on the EC and caused a bit of lock out. TD was a real disapointment, very few trichs and the smoke is not particularly strong. It's nice for a day time smoke, but you need to smoke 2 joints to get nicely toasted.

BAM1 was lovely, but only a few ounces (4.1).... I can't work out why she didn't stretch. BAM2 has dried to 62%RH, and 7.6 ounces are jarred for curing. Test smokes are positive.... fruity, zingy and potent.

This time I am aiming for lighter feeds..... no more than EC1.3-1.4, and I will be more careful with the Bloom boosters to ensure the EC still remains below 1.3-1.4. (by reducing the nute EC prior to booster addition).

Other than that, the set up is identical to before, 1.4m x 1.4m tent with 6" extraction and 5" intake. Lighting Helios 6 and 2x Helios Pro 2's on 21/3 .... I rotate the pots by 1/4 turn daily, and give then all a go under the Helios 6 every 3-4 days. I have 2x Photon 6 panels on order so they will soon have a 6 panel each. I will use the Pro 2s as side lighting once the Photons arrive.

As ever I'm using House and Garden nutes, and although at present they are in 5L airpots, I plan to put them in 20L airpots this weekend..... not something that's recommended with Autos, but I will be careful not to disturb the roots. One thing with the 5L airpots, is that they dry out very quickly, and require at least 2 waterings a day. At the moment, I give them around a litre each per feed.

Onto the grow.....

Back in early April, I made up 3x 5L airpots with 100% Canna Coco Professional Plus..... it has pH buffers and added Trichoderma.After a good soaking, I planted 1 seed in each pot, covered them with clingfilm and then a piece of black card, and left them in the tent for a bit of warmth, while BAM2 finished off.

3 days later, all 3 popped, and I fed them nutes and Roots Excellurator at EC 0.5-0.6 for day 1-3, then increased to EC 0.7 on day 4, then EC 0.8 on day 5.

Here thay are at day 6...

By day 14 I increased the EC to 0.9, and again upto EC 1.0 on day 18.

Now it's day 28, and they are still on EC 1.0. and doing very well. They are bigger than my previous grows at this stage, and I would usually be at EC 1.4 by now.

Here they are at day 28...

group shot Critical Jack front left

Auto Ultimate 2

Auto Ultimate 1 - she's gonna be a big girl.

Critical Jack

They all just started flowering, so everything's bang on time..... (must rememer to keep the EC down)Wish them luck!

G'day, I decided to treat my Girls to some new shoes on Saturday night while watching West Ham throw it away.I've had them in 5L airpots, and gave them a good watering in the afternoon to help the Coco hold together.

Then later on (while watching the match) I got my old 20L airpots out from my last grow, cleaned them up a bit (ahem), and half filled them with fresh Coco, gave them a bit of a soaking with nutrient, and then adapted the wet Coco to the sides of the airpot going about 1/2 way up, making a hole in the Coco about the size of the 5L airpot. Wearing rubber golves, I carefully unwrapped the old 5L airpot from each plant and pushed it into the pit, and added more coco down the sides, adapting it well into the corrugations in the pot. Job's a good 'un.

After another good soaking in EC1.1 feed, I put them back in the tent.

The following morning they looked fine, evident growth from the previous night, so all seems well so far.

Here they are at day 32.

Viewed from the side door, AU1 at the back right, CJ front right both under 600W MH, and AU2 on the left under the LEDs. I'm using MH till my new Photon panels arrive.

AU1 is doing the best at 90cm high, such lush vibrant growth.... I may have to snap her neck later on......

AU2 is slightly shorter than AU1 at 65cm but is more advanced in terms of flowering, but they're both only showing very early pistils at this stage....

Finally CJ.... she is the most advanced in terms of flowering, and is just a tiny bit smaller than AU2 at 55cm....

still, she's a good size, developing lots of bud sites....

I will let them enjoy themselves in their new shoes for a few days, maybe next weekend I will do a bit of trimming around their nether regions , and make sure they are constantly moist ......

........(by rigging up the Blumats ).

This morning I checked them again, and AU1 had shot up from 90cm to 103cm.... at this rate she will be through the roof in days.

I'm thinking of supercropping her main stem to bring it down to the height of the rest of the plant.... You might remember I did a bit of mild bending with my last crop (Think Different) on day 43, and nearly snapped her main cola off . Although I managed to do a nice repair and kept her going up straight, the stress was too much for me. She recovered without incident, and gave me 7.4oz in the end and I noticed that after this event, her side branches produced cola's rivalling the size of the main cola.

So it's worth a try at least....

.... so here goes.....

.....I gave her a good watering an hour before, then gave the stem a bit of a squeeze at the desired location and felt the phloem and xylem give, then I slowly bent her over until she gave way.... now I've supported her head and allowed her to rest. I really don't have a clue on this technique really.... just remembering stoned snippets of info read over the years.....

As an update to my supercropping antics, I also supercropped the branch below to give it space, and then decided to supercrop some of the side branches of AU2 out from the centre of the tent, out to the sides, spreading her out a bit.

Today, on day 35, the tent is filling up nicely, they have responded really well, and are in early flower.....

The main stem of AU1 is growing rapidly (but I made sure she's secured at 90 degrees), with tremendous upward growth of all the shoots....

ledbud wrote:as always looking very nice. one of the plant is nice and tall.

Ledbud, man, it's kicking off in there.... both AUs are huge.This is my day 40 update.....

All is well over here, the girls are coming on nicely....

AU1 is the big one at the back right, AU2 is on the left, and CJ is at front right.

AU1 is a very healthy looking plant, she is BIG, I supercropped her main stem without incident as per my last few posts, and a few days later, I decied to supercrop another 5 of her larger side branches..... Both AUs have developed a considerble number of flower sites, with multiple branching of all side shoots, and with all the supercropping, AU1 in particular has the potential to be a massive giver. She is 115cm high 90cm deep and 70cm wide.

AU1

AU2 is also gonna be massive, she too was getting too close to the lights, and so her main stem had to be supercropped. She's been under the Helios 6, but I positionned the 2 Helios Pro 2's on each side to give the lower side branches some extra light. I supercropped some of her branches away from the congested centre of the tent, guiding them into the side areas, and now she has 3 levels to her, the central main body of the plant plus the 2 lower side levels, getting their own light supply. She is 105cm high 70cm wide and 115cm deep, practically taking up half the tent. The 2 side levels are 75cm high and all in all, she kinda looks like a 'winner's podium' made of cannabis LOL

AU2

Both AUs are in the early stages of bloom, the CJ is more advanced in terms of flowering, but is a smaller plant 70cm tall, 35cm deep and 70cm wide. She is forming a good quantity of buds of good potential size, and already has a little frostiness. There's a lovely tangy cannabis smell in the tent on opening..... that lot's gonna reek by harvest time.

CJ

Sorry about the light in today's shots, they are all a lovely healthy green in reality, I was getting a bit paranoid about the HPS light being seen like a shaft of golden light cutting across the night sky, so I had to make it quick. At present, the AU2 is getting all LED, as mentioned before, while the AU1 and CJ were under 600W MH. This week I decided to switch to 600W HPS, as they slowed vegging and established themselves into flower.I also stopped Nitrogen Boost in their feeds, and gave Bud XL (0.75ml/L) instead. I also have increased Cal-Mag (which I use to buffer my EC 0 rainwater before adding nutes) from 0.2ml/l to 0.25ml. EC was in total 1.1 for most of last week, but now they are at EC 1.2.

Finally, I took delivery of my 2 new Photon Pro 126 panels today, but dunno if I should change the HPS now or just wait till next grow...

photonpro126d.jpg (42.86 KiB) Viewed 7722 times

Here's a Photon Pro 126 LED panel with 4 lights on. The lenses over each LED is said to increase penetration depth and prevents wastage of light..... rather than relying on the crappy reflective surfaces of the tent, the light is focussed on the plant right from the get go.

Running them would be cooler than HPS, so for that reason alone, switching lights now might be a good idea. I have so many possible configurations.... I think the AU2 should stay as is, but I could move the HPS to only over AU1 and put one Photon above CJ, and maybe one on as a side light... or I could put the HPS over CJ and both Photons over the AU2.

My current idea is to put one Photon alongside the Helios to give more light to the very wide AU2, and use the other above and 45 degrees to the CJ - kind of a semi side light.

At the moment I have a side by side comparison between LED on AU2 and MH/HPS on AU1 and CJ..... maybe I should continue that to the end? It seems that, so far at least, they are roughly equal in effect. Both plants are similarly huge and have great potential.

Anyway must finish this joint and get on with my evening, but before that..... a big thanks to the main man Muddy at LED Hydroponics for doing me a good deal on the photons! Cheers mate!

Things are progressing well in the grow tent... I rigged up the 2x Photon Pro 126s by putting one alongside the Helios 6 to give AU2 more light, and the other at an angle over CJ...... here's how much lighting I have going on in there......

AU1 is front right, and gets the Solis Tek 600W HPS all to herself.CJ is front left and was getting light from the Solis Tek 600W HPS, but was competing for light with AU1, so I gave her a laterally placed Photon Pro 126 this morning.AU2 is at the back, getting lateral light from a Helios Pro 2 either side, and a Photon Pro 126 and Helios 6 from above.... around 1128W of LED power.

With all that light, temps are around 28C, 80%RH and I have 5 internal air circulation fans in there.Here they are lights off as a group.... it's like a disco-jungle in there...... I'm getting flashbacks to Goa, Full Moon 1982.......

AU1 has been going mental, completely overshadowing CJ, and quite a few tips were getting pretty close to the lights, so this morning I gave her a bit of a supercropping..... she responded really well, giving me a nice even canopy with heaps of bud sites.....

AU1

AU1

AU2 is just huge, like a hedge at the back taking up half the tent.....

....she is getting a lot of light from top and the sides, and also has a large amount of flowering sites......

Finally CJ.... she would be an impressive plant if it were not for the AUs..... plus I had a bit of an accident when one of the air circulatiion fans fell from its position, and took out 4-5 branches of which I was able to succesfully reposition and splint back 3 of them.... neither she or I was very happy about the incident....